312 ALL ABOUT THE BABY
ous system and governing centers, and the least wear and tear on
the body itself,—thus from the very first we shall be able to
accomplish something that makes for a broad, efficient life and
length of days.
Build for the Future. Do not think, mother, only of the
immediate effect of some particular thing upon baby's health.
Final, lasting, and more important results can never be meas-
ured by any symptom or by any immediate reaction on baby's
part to any one thing. These things that we clo so systematically
for baby day by clay are a part of his physical education, and will
affect him until the day of his death—and that, day will certainly
be postponed (barring accident) if we do our work intelligently
and well. The importance of proper physical education cannot
be too strongly emphasized; and let no mother think, when day
by day she goes through the same endless routine, that she is
working only for the present—that her efforts avail little, that
she is simply getting her child through babyhood. She is doing
far more than this. She is building a man or a woman. She is
doing a work that will tell for all time and for eternity. Upon
the ability of mothers to do this work as it should be done de-
pends the welfare of the nation and of the world.
Encourage Development of Physical Powers, Just how
to carry out the normal program for a child during his first two
or three years we have discussed at length in previous chapters.
There are a few other things as regards baby's physical develop-
ment that may well be said. There are possibilities in this child
before us of which many of us have not dreamed—possibility of
attainment and accomplishment never realised because intelli-
gent thought and care are not given to those things that would
assure a more complete and all-round development. We have in
this child a very keenly alive and alert little animal anxious to
do, and we are continually saying "Don't." While, as has been
said in other chapters, the don'ts must be recognized during the
early months in order that the child may learn the art and power
of inhibition, yet it is of utmost importance that we permit him
continually to do the things that will satisfy his desire for action
and imitation, and thus permit a larger and more beautiful de-
velopment of his body powers.